Zbigniew Głąb

The presentation offers a critical reflection on the process of developing personal assistance service for people with disabilities in Poland, as one of the pillars of independent living.

The starting point is national efforts to institutionalize this concept, including the Polish Personal Assistance Standard, which have been developed in dialogue with foreign influences, particularly those from Scandinavia.

References to Swedish experiences function in Polish discourse more as a symbolic point of reference than as a real model for implementation, which contributes to its partial mythologization. As a result, tensions between the aspirational dimension of social policy and local institutional and political conditions take key importance.

This is illustrated by the difficulties in drafting and enacting the Polish Personal Assistance Act, highlighting the discrepancy between declarative support for the idea of independent living and the practice of its implementation.

The aim of the presentation is to open a discussion on a more context-sensitive and realistic development of personal assistance in Poland.

Presenter

Zbigniew Głąb, guest researcher from Department of Applied Sociology and Social Work, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland

Chair

Johanna Sixtensson, Senior Lecturer, Department of Social Work, Malmö University

Practical information

You are welcome to attend the seminar in person at Niagara. If you are not employed by the university, you need to register by emailing johanna.sixtensson@mau.se no later than the day before the seminar, as an access card is required to access the room.

The seminar will be held in English.

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